Acer Aspire SW5-012

[tsisaris]

ACER Aspire SW5-012

I would like to get rid of windows 10 and replace it with Porteus. I am told this is a 64-bit processor but has a UEFI 32-bit bootloader. Can I put Porteus 64 bit on this machine? Will Porteus 32 bit even work? Are there drivers to support all of this machine's devises? Who can help me?
Thank you,
Shawn

[Ed_P]

Welcome to the forum tsisaris.

The best way to answer your questions is to try it and find out. I'm sure you've heard that phrase from your parents and teachers before. Get an inexpensive USB drive, download a 32 bit Porteus ISO, and if you have the time a 64 bit one also. Open the ISO in Windows, copy/extract all the folders and files in the ISO to the USB drive then in the USB drive run the /boot/Porteus-Installer-for-Windows.exe program. Once done reboot your notebook, direct it to boot the USB drive and see what happens. If the 32 bit version boots ok consider redoing the steps with the 64 bit ISO.

Report back how things work out for you tsisaris and if you have problems we will try to resolve them for you.

BTW I just checked your Acer specs and it says it comes with the 64 bit Windows 10 system. Based on that I suggest testing the 64 bit Porteus ISO first rather than the 32 bit one.

[tsisaris]

It only has the 32-bit Windows 10. I haven't been able to get it to boot to either the 32-bit porteus or the 64-bit porteus. I used RUFUS to create a bootable USB for both versions. I used Grub2 to alter the EFI but it doesn't seem to stick. I need to find a cfg file to load into Grub2. I'm completely lost.

[tsisaris]

It's the KDE version I'm using.

[Ed_P]

RUFUS has problems with Porteus for some reason. Make the bootable USB drive as I said above.

Get an inexpensive USB drive, download a 32 bit Porteus ISO, and if you have the time a 64 bit one also. Open the ISO in Windows, copy/extract all the folders and files in the ISO to the USB drive then in the USB drive run the /boot/Porteus-Installer-for-Windows.exe program.

Use the 64 bit Porteus ISO rather than the 32 bit one for your Acer system.

Note: to boot the USB drive on a UEFI system requires either formatting the whole drive as FAT32 or partitioning the USB drive into a small 512 MB FAT32 partition for the EFI folder and a 2nd partition for the rest of the Porteus folders and files. Since Windows doesn't access multiple partitions on removeable drives the process gets tricky until you boot Porteus.

[tsisaris]

I have tried this and the installer doesnt work

[i3slkiller]

Hi tsisaris

In Porteus images (even 32-bit) there is no 32-bit UEFI loader (bootia32.efi), so it won't boot on this device.

Code: Select all

Path = Porteus-XFCE-v5.01-i586.iso
Type = Iso
Physical Size = 378535936
Created = 2023-10-03 06:21:08
Modified = 2023-10-03 06:21:08

   Date      Time    Attr         Size   Compressed  Name
------------------- ----- ------------ ------------  ------------------------
2023-08-12 23:25:05 D....                            EFI
2023-08-12 23:25:06 D....                            EFI/boot
2023-08-12 23:25:06 .....       176296       176296  EFI/boot/bootx64.efi
2023-08-12 23:25:05 .....        28480        28480  EFI/boot/chain.c32
2023-08-12 23:25:06 .....       133832       133832  EFI/boot/ldlinux.e64
2023-08-12 23:25:06 .....       196448       196448  EFI/boot/libcom32.c32
2023-08-12 23:25:06 .....        27152        27152  EFI/boot/libmenu.c32
2023-08-12 23:25:06 .....        24152        24152  EFI/boot/libutil.c32
2023-08-12 23:25:06 .....         6056         6056  EFI/boot/linux.c32
2023-08-12 23:25:06 .....        31728        31728  EFI/boot/menu.c32
2023-08-12 23:25:06 .....        11800        11800  EFI/boot/syslinux.c32
2023-08-12 23:25:06 .....           40           40  EFI/boot/syslinux.cfg
2023-08-12 23:25:05 .....        32408        32408  EFI/boot/vesamenu.c32
2023-08-12 23:25:08 .....         1512         1512  USB_INSTALLATION.txt
2023-08-12 23:25:08 D....                            boot
[*ciach*]

I suspect you are doing it on Windows, so download GRUB https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/grub/grub-2.06-for-windows.zip and install it according to this instruction https://www.aioboot.com/en/install-grub2-from-windows/ (pay attention to install for i386-efi and install it to right device)

Paste this to grub.cfg

Code: Select all

loadfont unicode

set gfxmode=auto
insmod all_video
if [ $grub_platform == 'efi' ]; then
  insmod efi_gop
fi
terminal_output gfxterm

menuentry 'Porteus Graphics mode' {
	linux /boot/syslinux/vmlinuz changes=/porteus
	initrd /boot/syslinux/initrd.xz
}
menuentry 'Porteus Always fresh' {
	linux /boot/syslinux/vmlinuz nomagic base_only norootcopy
	initrd /boot/syslinux/initrd.xz
}
menuentry 'Porteus Copy To RAM' {
	linux /boot/syslinux/vmlinuz copy2ram
	initrd /boot/syslinux/initrd.xz
}
menuentry 'Porteus Text Mode' {
	linux /boot/syslinux/vmlinuz 3
	initrd /boot/syslinux/initrd.xz
}
menuentry 'Porteus Text Mode (safe)' {
	linux /boot/syslinux/vmlinuz 3 nomagic base_only norootcopy
	initrd /boot/syslinux/initrd.xz
}

[Ed_P]

If wanting to use grub2 in Windows I recommend the Grub2Win app. I have been using it for years and is well supported by the creator.

I have tried this and the installer doesnt work

What installer? Porteus doesn't have an installer. One simply copies files, no installer needed.

[tsisaris]

You told me to run porteus installer for windows... This is the installer that I'm referring to... I also tried grub2win and it didn't work. Grub2win makes it sound like it keeps reverting to the native uefi every time it reboots. I'll try the original grub as advised.

[Ed_P]

You told me to run porteus installer for windows...

Sorry, I know it's called that but I never think of it that way. So what error msg do you get when you execute it?

Grub2win makes it sound like it keeps reverting to the native uefi every time it reboots.

If you have an EFI machine that is how it boots. And once it is up you can boot whatever system you want.

Paste this to grub.cfg

Interesting menus i3slkiller. They don't boot the Porteus menu do they??

[tsisaris]

once its up its already booted into windows.

[Ed_P]

once its up its already booted into windows.

When you boot does the Grub2Win menu display? Have you added any menus to it after you installed it?

[tsisaris]

No the grub2 menu never displays. it just boots right to windows every time. Which utility do I use to make sure that the partition is correct on the usb? right now it only has one partition for FAT32 and I'm getting the error mentioned earlier. e: doesn't look like an EFI partition.

[Ed_P]

No the grub2 menu never displays.

After you installed Grub2Win did you start it and create a menu?

Which utility do I use to make sure that the partition is correct on the usb?

In Windows you have diskpart. Have you tried it? What does it show?
How did you create the FAT32 on the USB drive?

Added in 25 minutes 50 seconds:
My drives; 0 the hard drive, 1 the USB drive.

Code: Select all

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.22621.2861]
(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\System32>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.22621.1

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: EDS-DELL

DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online          931 GB  3072 KB        *
  Disk 1    Online           28 GB  2048 KB

DISKPART> list volume

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 0     C   OS           NTFS   Partition    219 GB  Healthy    Boot
  Volume 1     D   Data         NTFS   Partition    250 GB  Healthy
  Volume 2     E   Backups      NTFS   Partition    443 GB  Healthy
  Volume 3         ESP          FAT32  Partition    150 MB  Healthy    System
  Volume 4                      NTFS   Partition   1244 MB  Healthy    Hidden
  Volume 5         Image        NTFS   Partition     16 GB  Healthy    Hidden
  Volume 6         DELLSUPPORT  NTFS   Partition   1395 MB  Healthy    Hidden
  Volume 7     F   PORTEUS50    FAT32  Removable     28 GB  Healthy

DISKPART> select disk 1

Disk 1 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> list partition

  Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset
  -------------  ----------------  -------  -------
  Partition 1    Primary             28 GB  4032 KB

DISKPART>

Command Prompt needs to be run with Admin Rights to run diskpart.

[tsisaris]

I'm being dragged into dos and new windows programs and have no idea what I'm doing. It would be nice if I only needed one piece of software and a usb drive? I need to do this step by step. None of these seem to be working. I don't even know which grub.cfg to paste to or where in the file to paste. The one I found says don't modify this file.